Situational Conditioning

I've got a test coming up. I want to get re-certified.

I don't fully appreciate many of the certifications in my line of work, but this one was a challenge. The list of certified professionals is relatively short. I was an early adopter. And I felt it was worth keeping.

It's been some time since I've had to study in any capacity. There is the hitch. Now, I have seen some commercials about "the new learning" and all. New learning, indeed.

I have received mp3's of my material. It's Unix security related. So, my headphones are spitting out about 40 hours of Unix threats from the past 25 years. All the while I'm gasping and choking on 15F degree air. I've done some wacky things, but listening to "how to hack and protect computers" while running is most definitely different.

So, will I need to get a treadmill for the test?

I like it. Maybe I should swap this for the TV while doing rollers.

What It Is

How many times can a guy post a "getting back at it" or "now I'm really hitting it" resolutions style post?

Here I am again. Viruses ran amok in the family again. Things are clearing up for me. And now I ran. I biked. I'm curtailing my eating properly.

Where I am is the good ol' US of A. As such, I was hoping for some more immediate results. Yet, perhaps this is the year of knuckling down. This is the year to watch every move and get them all right. Now is the time to act like we deserve that big ol' "I'm an American" stamped on your forehead. Instead of telling everyone else what's good for them. Take some stock in yourself. It's time to shine.

(self pep talk over. I have to go study for a test)

Moab

I could not help but be inspired to go through 1-2 old photos this week.

Back story:

It was the early 90's. Love was in the air. And my girl planned us a trip out West. I had me a brand new, over sized, could not be heavier if I brazed on some lead tires Giant Iguana. I took my new tank and a trusty pair of jeans shorts out to Slickrock with my girl, and we had ourselves a ball. (also, I really dug the beef, Cheddar and peppers on toast in town).

Also "en route" over that spring break would have been Sedona, and a few other fun stops.

Fun times indeed. Minus doing the math wrong on coming back. Some how "still in AZ on Saturday" doesn't match up with "class on Monday" too well. Indeed, it was a thirty some hour drive straight back, save the pancake house stop and a few naps.

It wasn't until I got back wherein I noticed a few of the places we had been in some of my magazines. Heck, she took me out to some signed and sealed mountain biking Mecca's. Take note kids, if you find a girl like that.. hang on.

Not Blogging...

On the off chance you read this and haven't been here yet. Now you've been told.

Snap Out of It

So, I've been riding. Posting, not so much. Bear with me until things get better.

In the mean time, check out the commuter's next must have!

Bike lines for every road.

I for one, am rather anti bike lane. This version though, I love. Maybe it's just bright enough to wake a few of those motorists up. Or more likely, accidentally flash in their eye. Hopefully taking their attention off the cell conversation long enough to keep them from buzzing you.

Cheers!

Feed a Cold

All that New Year's resolution stuff is out the window. Some virus thinks I need to follow the "feed a cold". I'm trying to do so in moderation, but food does seem to help my overall health-o-meter.

Luckily I know better than to sweat a few days lost at the start of a year.

Keeping up with the core workouts.. The rest have been replaced by sleep. The worst part is when I stop riding, I spend more time lusting.

The Obligatory Resolutions Post

I spent New Year's Day biking down to watch some crazy polar bear swimmers at the lake. My best estimation was there were way more spectators vs participants this year. It gets more crowded every year. The '09 swim brought wall to wall (or shoreline to beach house) onlookers. The street was all boogered up with traffic. It was quite a sight.

We took the kids to see Bolt. That was fun.

On the way home we caught some Kopps. I manned up by NOT ordering fries, but in true JWM fashion had to reward myself (for not getting fries?) with a sundae of the month. The January sundae has truly delicious flavoring. It also has quite a story dating way back to when JWM had just met Mrs. JWM. More on that some other time.

As flavorfulishiously rewarding as the sundae was, I couldn't shake the felling that I ate too much of it. And the result was I didn't feel tip top. I went for a 4 mile run. Said "good night" to the kids. and hit some core workouts.

All this leaves me to reassess why I eat such things (again). It's a new year and time yet again to hit the button and reflect on self improvement.

Additionally, I've got an "new mountain bike" incentive for myself. It's hanging as a carrot (or an ice cream sundae). I have a mental image/goal of me whopping it up at Chequamegon on a new 29er single speed bike. This picture is my resolution and goal.

Happy New Year!

Go do your polar bear swim or whatever it is you are going to do this year.

Reset your counters and such. Don't forget the lessons you learned last year.

Good luck.

Hard Days

As hard as the hard days are, it's so much easier than regular days.

It's easy to go when no one is out. When temps are -1F. When wind chill is -20 or less. It's easy to suit up.

It's easy to go on days when you can claim to be the crazy one. Even if it's only to yourself.

If I can go today, I can go any day. This is more or less true. But it can be much harder to go every mundane, non-extreme, "get your workout in" day. That is where my challenges lie this year.

First Fixed Roller Ride

Yesterday, I was a bit tentative about hooking up the ol' Milwaukee fixed gear to my rollers and seeing what happens. I even considered the likelihood that video could make me famous on youtube.

Alas, such was not to be. It was a smooth, comfortable, uneventful ride.

One thing for future first time subscribers to the fixed roller rides. Note the difference on the rollers. When you stop pedaling, everything stops. This is wildly different than the road, where you are reminded immediately you may not stop pedaling.

It's -1 F, I'm considering a run outside. Better go.

-5 ? Really?

Or that made up wind chill number of -24.

It's looking an awful lot like a roller ride kind of day.

Snow Day

She didn't have to shovel.

Moles and Trolls

"Nobody has any fun around here anymore. Last week there were no entrants to the M. Curie lookalike contest. Well, there was one. But he was later disqualified." -- a movie ( I probably paraphrased it )

Anyway, last week my job was like the IT equivalent of ER. We'll maybe half ER and half cosmetic surgery. I came out slightly better than I have in the past. I didn't quite make the whole "rollers everyday" thing. I'm doing core and I'm itching to run. Sure last night before I hit the hay, it was 45 degrees out. This morning when I awoke, it was 4 degrees. But it's a dry 4 degrees.

Somehow, when it was 17 degrees coming home, it seemed not so bad.

I'm looking forward to a couple of (hopefully) non-70 hour weeks. I'm ready to roll. I'm ready to run.

So, anyone recall the movie? "Ice is nice!"

Speaking of a Roller Derby

I ran into a few headed to last week's roller derby. I read of even more who were there.

Then I read about an entirely different kind of roller derby on the other side of the world.

The first type roller derby I've seen on TV or heard about all my life. The second one, not so much.

I have been trying to hook up my old, semi unreliable cyclo-computer to my road bike. I want the cadence function only. I now know I've been going about my cadence-o-meter all wrong. I will be needing the plans for that huge pie plate on their wall. (though I don't need one that says 400 on it).

Time to hit the basement and see if I can get to 122 RPMs on my rollers.

It's All True

One day I wrote this.

The next day I read this.

Internet advice is funny, most of it is true for someone at some point. It's up to the reader to figure out which advice is applies now.

Limiters from the Back of Pack

I often have my own internal conversations about what easy, low hanging fruit I can pick off with regards to my endurance performance. I am writing this list for myself to read in the future. If anyone else can gain perspective off it, great!

1. Consistency. How many times do you have 2-5 great weeks followed by the flu, work, family, or other commitments? And do those other commitments (never, sometimes, often) build into multi-(day, week, month) lapses in your workouts? Fix: get in a workout. Figure out your minimum levels. For me, a 3 mile run is still a run. Or more recently 20-30 minutes on the rollers is very doable daily.
   
2. Repeatable. Yep, this is the corollary to rule #1. But if you're doing stuff that will leave you sleeping in the next day and missing your workout. You blew it. Once is OK. But if you don't write it down and learn from it you will be here again and again.
   
3. Weight. I should put this much farther down the list. Not because it's not important, but it's the known factor. Everyone knows the less you have to haul, the faster you will go given the same amount of power. If you spend $5000 for a 1lb lighter bike, great. But look at that 10, 15, or 20 pounds of cushion covering your six pack and ask what it's costing you first.
4. Genetics. I'm only listing this to mention you can't do anything about it. Cross it off your list and stop using it as an excuse you're not better. Have you fixed everything else?
5. Diet. Never mind your weight. Do you notice how you feel after drinking tons of soda and burgers/fries vs. fruits/vegetables/lean protein?
6. Core. How much difference does this make? After two weeks of fit-ball exercises, I perceive a fairly significant difference in my running stability. One might argue there are much faster folks who don't do these exercises, but we haven't sat down and tested their base against your base core strength.
   
7. Flexibility. Much like core. One will hear "I don't stretch." Or even read articles on why stretching is bad. Touch your toes (or try).. How do you think your range of motion compares to mid-pack or faster folks?
8. Leg turnover / cadence. While it's clear one can look at different cyclist and runners and find that there is no one cadence that works. How much time have you spent pushing your envelopes to see what works? (do you even know what you run/ride at?) If you plod around at 60 cycles per second normally, 110 is going to blow you up but quick. If you toss a few accelerations here and there, you can gradually bring up your cadence. After giving yourself a bit of a range, you can then better determine which is more efficient for you.
9. Form. Here we're getting to level 2 stuff. Doesn't form come from core, flexibility, and practice? If you think you have all the level one stuff and you're still slow, how's your form?
   
10. Focus. How many 1, 3, or 6 hour trainer rides have you done watching Lord of the Rings movies or what not? Are you anywhere near riding a bike, or just turning pedals and keeping your heart rate in a particular zone? I'm combating this on rollers where I have to at least focus enough to stay on them. Ditto with running and i-Pods. I dig the the music too. There is a time for it. Spend time focusing on form, pedal stroke, and just plain being in the moment. On race day (especially endurance ones), you will do much better by staying focused. This doesn't happen by trying it for the first time while racing.
11. Don't spread it too thin. If you've spent years not improving at skiing, swimming, biking, running and underwater chess, knock it back a bit. I pared back to just cycling recently, only to add in running finally. I'm going to stay away from the pool for a while and focus on improving what I'm doing now.
    
12. Sleep. It's shocking how much I perceive sleep/diet/training all hinge on each other. Is your case of the "training Mondays" because you stayed up later Friday and Saturday than the rest of the week?
13. Work harder. Caveat, this can't be in conflict with rule #1 or #11.
    
14. Water? Do you drink enough? OK, I'm out on a limb here. Yes, you need water.

The bigger point is, there are a large number of variables for general health. Many seem to effect endurance performance. Which one could really be keeping you down? Is it obvious? Grab the easiest one or five and knock them out. See what happens. My personal experience is it's hard to keep all the balls in the air at once. Then again, when I work on consistency and core, my diet likes to fall in line.

Feedback welcome.

Disclaimer, I'm not a coach and I just peel this stuff off once in a while to see if it sticks.

See you out there!

Stuffed

I started the morning giving myself hope for my cadence. I did rollers workout #1 again. I may do it yet one more time in the name of "one hour on rollers". Then I'll see what happens when I build into the plan.

Turkey, potatoes, several cran-* dishes and rolls. That was some good eats. Then pie. Tomorrow, I may have to crank up the iPod extra loud to drown out the blubbering on my run.

I hope everyone else had as good of Thanksgiving as I did.

Pre-Turkey Day Burn

I don't really want to be a "workout blogger". Having not posted in some time, I should update from the "Life" post. I did have a fortnight totally off of workouts due to fatigue and illness. I hopped back on when I was sure I was ready. The first roller workout was pretty steady compared to starting up last month. And here I am this week...

Sunday, two hours on the single speed outside in 40 degrees. Someone remind me to put it back to fixed so I can work the cadence. I felt I could push the low end but topped out quick.

Monday, gasp! I ran. I had to crank up the nano something fierce to drowned out the sound of my pleas and wailing.

Today, I'm really happy with today's workout. Sixty minutes on rollers doing Ron Rogers interval workout #1. First time I ever attempted these on rollers. I have some feed back for how to improve getting it done next time.. but basically I'm on my way.

The current go forward plan will be: Run M/W/F. Interval program T/R. And a nice outdoor ride on the weekend. As for swimming, I have to remember to cancel my membership before I'm stuck swimming another year.

While I'm at it, IT security stuff has been buggin' me more lately.. Tip of the day, "Turn off autorun". Especially if you take your thumb drive and/or memory stick to photo kiosks.

See you out there.

Life...

Here is where the rubber hits the road.

• I've got 3 flat tires in the basement.
• Some kind of virus is going through the family.
• Two birthday parties canceled today.
• Wifi users now have to worry that not only is WEP a flimsy substitute for encryption, but WPA is on it's way to the "do not use" list.
• SP3 is out, when to install these "fixes"?
• Boxes in the basement need to go to the attic.
• Whitefish Bay schools looks caught up on the wrong side of financial leverage.
• Update your Adobe Acrobat.
• Winter is coming.

Reboot

I hope there is some tail kicking going on at ICEMAN.

Kettles South

Man was my ride ever sweet on Sunday. I got up at the crack of re-un-adjusted CST 6AM and headed off to Kettles Southern Unit. I pounded out two smoother than ever before laps. I "cleared" many of those previously mental block, put my foot down, obstacles.

I've still got a bone to pick with the incline at mile 9.1-ish. I feel there is hope for me.

I do not yet know if I can learn to ride fast over this terrain (or any!). Every ride is and will be a learning experience.

I forgot to hit the lap button on lap 2, but it seemed like I negative split it. I was pretty beat, but much less worse for wear than my last excursion. I cleared 20 miles steady/smooth vs. bonking at 15 of 17.

See you out there!

In other news, I had to wait behind one person to vote today after work. All I have to say about the morning voters is "Suckers!" I mean, "Great job for getting out and voting!"